Leveling the Playing Field: Sports and Human Rights <br>Panel Discussion and Breakfast

About the speakers

Sardar Pashaei

President, Hiwa | World Wrestling Champion

Sardar Pashaei is a Kurdish human rights activist, former world wrestling champion, and President of Hiwa, a U.S.-based organization advocating for a democratic and secular Iran.

A former national team coach, he was banned from international competition due to his Kurdish background and political views, and later forced to flee Iran. His activism has come at a personal cost, with members of his family arrested and tortured by Iranian authorities.

Today, he leads international advocacy efforts focused on human rights, ethnic and minority rights, and political repression in Iran. His work also highlights how the Islamic Republic uses sport as a tool of control and propaganda.

He works with policymakers, media, and civil society to advance accountability and support a democratic future for Iran. His advocacy has been featured by major outlets including BBC, CNN, and Fox News.

Michael Posner

Jerome Kohlberg Professor of Ethics and Finance, NYU Stern School of Business

Michael Posner is the Jerome Kohlberg Professor of Ethics and Finance at NYU’s Stern School of Business. He is the Director of the Center for Business and Human Rights at the School, the first-ever human rights center at a business school. Prior to joining NYU Stern, Michael served in the Obama Administration from 2009-2013 as Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. From 1978 to 2009, he led Human Rights First, a New York-based human rights advocacy organization.

Christen Broecker

Director, Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights

Christen Broecker is Director of AJC’s Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights and spearheads its work to promote greater respect for universal human rights worldwide.

Christen joined JBI in 2010 and was its Deputy Director from 2016-2024. She has collaborated with several independent United Nations experts and bodies focused on country situations where widespread rights violations are occurring and on key thematic issues including preventing genocide, defending religious freedom, combating religious intolerance, and combating torture. She is a lead author of a UN policy paper on combating Holocaust denial and genocide denial and a manual on human rights and prevention of genocide produced by JBI in cooperation with the Office of the UN Special Adviser on Prevention of Genocide. She has successfully urged social media companies to apply their content moderation policies consistently and to remove harmful online content including Holocaust denial in line with human rights standards. She has overseen the publication of JBI reports tracking rising global antisemitism as a human rights concern and widespread rights violations in countries including Iran, Ukraine, and Sudan. She is the author of numerous publications on U.S. foreign policy and human rights and UN human rights mechanisms and is co-editor, with former JBI Director Felice Gaer, of The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights: Conscience for the World (2013).

Before coming to AJC, Broecker was the NYU Fellow at Human Rights Watch where she focused on Indonesia. She received B.A. from the University of North Carolina in Peace, War, and Defense and International Studies; and a J.D. and an LL.M in International Legal Studies from New York University, where she was an Institute for International Law and Justice Scholar.

Natalie Gonnella-Platts

Director, Global Policy, George W. Bush Institute

Natalie Gonnella-Platts has over 15 years of experience advancing research, policy, and programs in support of women and children worldwide.

Her current work includes a focus on the rights and well-being of women and children in Afghanistan; the intersection of economic development, migration, and gender-based violence in regions like Central America; the agency and advancement of young women and adolescent girls in sub-Saharan Africa; and the link between democratic backsliding, autocratic regimes, and gender inequity.

Gonnella-Platts studied Communications and International Studies (Peace and Conflict) at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Fredonia. She earned an MA in War, Violence and Security studies from the University of Sussex in Brighton, United Kingdom.

Elizabeth Kennedy Trudeau

The Bradford M. Freeman Managing Director, Global Policy, George W. Bush Institute

Elizabeth Kennedy Trudeau is the Bradford M. Freeman managing director of global policy at the Bush Institute. In this role, Trudeau leverages her decades of experience as a senior member of the United States Foreign Service and her significant knowledge of international relations, diplomacy, and strategic communications to lead the development of the Bush Institute’s global policy portfolio.

As a diplomat for the U.S. Department of State, Trudeau served as deputy chief of mission in Baghdad, Iraq. Before that, she worked in Ukraine as acting deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv. Trudeau was also based in Pakistan, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, among other overseas postings for the U.S. Foreign Service. In Washington, she served as the acting assistant secretary for the Bureau of Global Public Affairs and as the principal deputy assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs. She also completed details with the National Security Council and NATO’s international staff. Before joining the Foreign Service, she was communications director for a private charitable foundation.

Schedule of Events

8:30 a.m. Check-in opens 9:00 a.m. Conversation begins* 9:45 a.m. Conversation concludes 10:00 a.m. Event concludes

*Note: In consideration of our speakers and guests in attendance, the program will begin promptly at 9:00 a.m. Please plan accordingly to avoid any delays for your arrival.